I recently posted about the sale of the five major digest fiction magazines: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Analog Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Locus Online has posted an update with comments from the science fiction editors.
Here are the key points:
…have been acquired by Must Read Magazines, a division of a new publishing company, Must Read Books Publishing. All editorial staff from the magazines have been retained in the acquisitions. Jackie Sherbow has been promoted to editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. P.L. Stevens joins the group as publisher.
Must Read Magazines is financially backed by a small group of genre fiction fans. A major investor and board advisor is Michael Khandelwal, the founder of a writing nonprofit and Virginia’s Mars Con toastmaster. Macmillan Learning Ebook consultant and developer Franco A. Alvarado has joined the group as director, design & operations. Leading the executive board is former Curtis Brown literary agent Steven Salpeter, who will manage the distribution, translation, and Film/TV rights for the company, as he does for other companies at his new firm 2 Arms Media.
The link above will take you tot he complete post, which includes further details and statements from the editors of Analog and Asimov’s and Gordan Van Gelder, who was the publisher of F&SF.
My (not necessarily well-thought out) thoughts.
I think the fact that the people behind the purchase are a group of readers and fans iwth real-world business and publishing experience is a potentially good sign. It implies that they aren’t using the magazines as some corporate financial maneuver that won’t be in the best interests of the magazines or the readers. I hope they realize their goals of expanding the readership of all the magazines.
I agree 80% with keeping the same editorial staff for now. I’m sure there will be changes over the next few months or more, but for now everything, at least with the four Penny Press/Dell magaziines will continue with little interruption.
I do wish t hey would do something about the Alfred Hitchcock’s response time to submissions, thought. A year or more is too long a response time for a professional magazine.
Maybe now F&SF will begin publishing on a regular schedule again. I’m glad things seem to be looking up for this particular publication. I’ve had a subscription for nearly 40 years, and I’ve got a complete running going back nearly 50 years. I don’t want to see it die.
What do you think, will this revialtize the genre digests? Or am I being overly optimistic?
Hopefully, this will be a turn around for these magazines. I used to read FSF and Asimov’s regularly but sort of fell off. That said I don’t want them to go away.
I think it sounds like good news for the magazines and their fans. They’d be kept alive as a non-profit outfit. Not uncommon in the cultural space.
Doesn’t make much difference for me as the mags departed from my tastes a while back. And, judging by subscription numbers, from the taste of most of the reading population. Doesn’t help that readers are looking for more long-form stories these days.
Given the success of Raconteur Press and other new short story outfits, there’s a niche for a magazine which appeals to the majority of readers. Perhaps “Must Read” will add some new titles for them.